Your Voice: Taylor sees Farmington’s special qualities

We are writing this letter to urge our fellow Farmington citizens to support and vote for Maria Taylor in her run for Farmington City Council.

As residents of Farmington for thirty-five years our family has educated three sons in Farmington public schools, seen improvements to the cityscape in terms of walkability with the addition of sidewalks, development and improvements in the traffic flow and parking in the downtown area. We have considered ourselves lucky to live in this community.

We support Maria Taylor for City Council because w believe that she recognizes the special qualities of our community and will work to maintain its charm and livability for all of its residents. She has a vision for Farmington which will keep it one of the outstanding residential areas in metro Detroit. I know her to be a person eager to serve our community and not to use political involvement to promote her own personal gain.

Everyone should realize that maintaining our sweet spot on Grand River necessitates change. Cities need revenue to pay for services. I trust Maria to serve the community rather than her own financial betterment while serving on the Council. Ms. Taylor understands that assuring adequate revenue for the proper functioning of the city is paramount. She looks to find solutions to our needs without sacrificing the character of Farmington, which would be the inevitable outcome of focusing solely on a higher density downtown.

If thirty five years ago we had purchased a home in Royal Oak instead of Farmington, odds are that the huge growth in Royal Oak would have resulted in a larger financial dividend for us. I have no regrets for not realizing that hypothetical gain. Instead we built additions onto our house as have many neighbors.

I feel fortunate to have lived in this wonderful community and urge Farmington residents to vote for Maria Taylor to assure that the high quality of life we have here is maintained. She has voiced her opposition to the proposed move of city hall, public safety departments and possibly the library from downtown and is opposed to overly dense residential development on the Maxfield site. She can be trusted to be attentive to the needs of all of her constituents and to not favor proposals which benefit a select few in the Downtown at the expense of longtime residents’ quality of life.